While police continue to follow leads in the case, her family waits with dimming patience as they wonder if she is dead or alive.

"It feels like it's been a lifetime, to tell you the truth," Roderick. "Then it feels like it was just yesterday."

Friends and family gathered Sunday for a vigil on what would have been Johnson's 19th birthday on the corner where Jacob Bumpass -- the last person to see her alive -- said he left her.

"This has been absolutely devastating," said Roderick. "There's nothing like one of your children to be gone and not know where they are."

The group gathered in a circle, holding hands, shedding tears and remaining resolute that there will be closure. The event was organized by a man who never met Johnson but was touched by her story.

"Hopefully someone would do that for me if I needed some day," said the organizer.

"It's just been awful, every day," Roderick said. "Paige has been on my mind every day."

Roderick said she knows detectives continue to look for her granddaughter.

"They'll never give up," she said. "Brian Frodge will never give up. He has promised me and my daughter that he will find out what happened to Paige."

"I just want her back," said Johnson's best friend, Abby Schmitz. "I'd give anything to know what happened to her. For two years, I've held onto these questions, and they run through my head every day. What happened to her that night? Why won't anyone talk?"

"I thought it'd bring some kind of cheer to Donna, Paige's mother," said Alicen Franks, Johnson's cousin. "I really believe there were people who were with her that knew what happened and for whatever reason won't come out and say something. So I hope the more her name is out there, the more likely someone will say something."

The vigil ended with balloons rising into the air, and for some it was an emotional farewell.